The key to lovechild is juxtaposition. How else could gritty smooth soul hooks fit so harmoniously over edgy, eclectic electronic sounds and eastern rhythms? Somehow, magically, they do, and the resulting music a delightful new hybrid genre called “industrial soul” (think Bjork and Michael Jackson making sweet music together).
Drawing from wildly disparate influences and preferences, Love Child’s creators—Nicole Rue and Ethan Hein— were originally brought together by jazz. Both are alums of Amherst College, where they played in the jazz ensemble together. Many years and experiences later, the two reunited and began to tell each other stories through music. What ensued was a dynamic meeting of minds, hearts and souls—out of which Love Child was born..
“Ethan would give me crazy tracks that were laden with wild sounds and samples. Each song was so complex! But I went home with them and came back with some crazy soul shit that seemed, in my mind, to work with it. I really enjoy it—it’s an interesting mental and creative challenge. I like trying to give soul to Ethan’s machine.”
The mark of great music is that it can serve many functions—it can make you dance, it can make you think and feel, it can bend into the background while you chat with your friends over a bottle of pinot, you can sing along to it in your car. Love Child’s debut EP quickly becomes part of the soundtrack of your life. Its energetic and insistent hooks stay in your head long after the densely layered tracks have ended. The buttery, energetic vocals infuse richness and depth with a crossover pop appeal. The bingi drums and other Eastern beats add danceable, Basement Bhangra-type polyrhythms.
The live project born of this labor is the band Love Child. With a heavy hitting line-up of pros- keys (Jeremy Bacon), guitar (Ethan Hein), bass (Marcelino Thompson), drums (Andy LaDue), trumpet (Nate Birkey), back up vocals (Steffani Bennett), and a dancer (Brian Polite), there is certainly a ”no holds barred” bigness about the stage show. Live, the band recalls the rawness of Chakha Khan, particularly with Thompson on bass, who formerly played with Chaka. Nate Birkey on trumpet adds a depth and complexity to their rich, soul sound. The vocal harmonies are rich and warm, and the stage presence of the entire group is incredibly powerful. Front woman and vocal powerhouse Nicole Rue lends the band a sexy sixties image with her larger-than-life afro and her award winning long legs. “I am hoping to take over Tina Turner’s spot as the sexiest legs in show business!” she quips. Her physical beauty, her talent and her warm personality pack the shows with high energy and dynamic vocals. She’s a total package.
Love Child’s music is intelligent—perhaps because of Nicole’s prestigious background as a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Lit.—in that it blends and juxtaposes the complex with the accessible, the futuristic with the retro, the black musical genres with the white, the soul with the machine. This band is a secret portal to a booty-shaking kingdom where industrial soul reigns and you are king!
